MOTUnation.com

Hi:

I don't do a lot of mixing in DP7 yet,(well serious mixing,just roughs)mostly I use it for songwriting and to record keyboard parts for my band's CD's.

Have a chance to record some bass tracks in my room to be sent to an engineer for mixing. Where do you engineers like to peaks to sit at? I was figuring maybe around -6db to allow for some extra headroom? Is that good, or should they be a little hotter?


I was also thinking of compressing ever so slighty on the way in, just to tame the peaks, maybe 1 or 2 db.

I should also note that the songs are covers of Black Sabbath, Kiss, and originals in that style of music

Any thoughts or recommendations would be greatly appreciated. I know there are books out there, but it's also nice to hear from the folks that do this stuff everyday..

Thanks in advance,
Anthony

AnthonyS wrote:Hi:


Have a chance to record some bass tracks in my room to be sent to an engineer for mixing. Where do you engineers like to peaks to sit at? I was figuring maybe around -6db to allow for some extra headroom? Is that good, or should they be a little hotter?


I was also thinking of compressing ever so slighty on the way in, just to tame the peaks, maybe 1 or 2 db.

-6db for peaks is fine. If you have a compressor with a particular tone that you want on the album by all means use it with some very light compression. Otherwise there is really no need to compress "on the way in" and it can make it harder to mix if the compression is too heavy.

If you were sitting in my studio the signal would go straight out of your bass, into the pre-amp to the ADC. Straight wire with gain.

Dean

6dB of headroom should be fine. Some folks like a little more, but it shouldn't be a problem as long as none of the peaks hit zero. If you're sending it to someone else for the mixing, I'd let them deal with compression. The closer you have to raw tracks, the more he/she has to work with. That's what I would want, anyway. I assume you're recording at 24 bits. You should be. I'd ask the mix person what they want for file format.

Phil

edit: woops, we posted at the same time.

Thanks for the tips, guys. I'll leave off the compression. I was going to do a DI as well as a mic'd bass cab.

Engineer wants 24/44.1. I'm using a MOTU 828MK3, FYI

Cheers.......

Anthony

When mixing in DP this can always be adjusted by the SET BITE GAIN option.
Great feature that gets used all the time in my studio on DP tracked or other DAW tracked material. Hot or not, DP users can always adjust this and it´s non-destructive

One can optimize the soundbite volume and then merge the files before exporting to another engineer/DAW.